ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) Trading Up 0.8% Following Analyst Upgrade

ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML - Get Free Report) was up 0.8% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $790.00 to $860.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. ASML traded as high as $739.52 and last traded at $733.50. Approximately 300,997 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 1,337,890 shares. The stock had previously closed at $727.41.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on ASML. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on ASML from $1,207.00 to $1,148.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their target price on ASML from $815.00 to $767.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered ASML from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. BNP Paribas started coverage on shares of ASML in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. They set an "outperform" rating and a $858.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Berenberg Bank upgraded shares of ASML to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, ASML has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $955.50.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ASML

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its stake in ASML by 4,379.6% in the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 889,875 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $910,102,000 after buying an additional 870,010 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of ASML by 94,079.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 491,618 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $4,096,410,000 after purchasing an additional 491,096 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in ASML by 37.0% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,757,049 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $1,464,061,000 after purchasing an additional 474,653 shares during the period. Tairen Capital Ltd boosted its stake in ASML by 321.2% in the 2nd quarter. Tairen Capital Ltd now owns 202,946 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $207,559,000 after purchasing an additional 154,760 shares during the period. Finally, Mediolanum International Funds Ltd purchased a new stake in ASML during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $125,952,000. Institutional investors own 26.07% of the company's stock.

ASML Stock Performance

The firm's 50-day moving average price is $701.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $803.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market cap of $289.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.55, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.47.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The semiconductor company reported $5.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.24 by $0.56. The business had revenue of $8.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $7.66 billion. ASML had a net margin of 26.40% and a return on equity of 47.61%. Sell-side analysts expect that ASML Holding will post 20.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 7th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 29th were paid a dividend of $1.407 per share. This represents a $5.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 29th. ASML's payout ratio is presently 29.21%.

ASML Company Profile

ASML Holding N.V. develops, produces, markets, sells, and services advanced semiconductor equipment systems for chipmakers. It offers advanced semiconductor equipment systems, including lithography, metrology, and inspection systems. The company also provides extreme ultraviolet lithography systems; and deep ultraviolet lithography systems comprising immersion and dry lithography solutions to manufacture various range of semiconductor nodes and technologies.